Braving the Storm
by MrsB108
Summary: To what lengths would Teyla go to save Colonel Sheppard?


**This was my Secret Santa Entry dedicated to Teylafan over at Gateworld.**

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Teyla shielded her eyes with her hand against the cold winter wind that whipped relentlessly at her face and neck. The air stung with its bitterness and the cold was so intense that she found it difficult to breathe. The thick brown boots she wore did little to protect her from the dampness of the knee–deep snow she plowed through and soon her legs felt like heavy bricks, her muscles quivering slightly with each surmounting step towards her destination.

The wind howled rudely in her face, shoving thick gusts of snow into her eyes from every possible angle. Teyla simply pressed her lips together tightly, bent her head downward and continued her trek. Nothing could deter her from her mission. Nothing ever could.

For hours she walked, barely able to stand sometimes, the weather of the forbidden ice planet wearing down her every nerve and bone. More than once she was thrown backward into heavy drifts of snow, barely able to emerge from their engulfing mass. Tears of anguish formed a few times in the corners of her eyes and yet became frozen before they could even roll down her cheek.

_Nothing will stop me. _

Soon the landmark she had been searching for became visible; an enormous mountain covered in peaks of snow and jagged chunks of ice. Teyla nearly fell from relief at the sight of it and her surge of emotions only seemed to further her on as her staggered pace suddenly developed twice as fast.

When she found the hidden cave along the mountain wall, she practically threw herself in, desperate for the shelter of the planet's conditions. The air was silent here she noticed, the howling wind a mere echo of a thought soon forgotten.

Teyla lay there on the ground for a while, her body beaten and battered from the journey.

She concentrated on her breathing while her thoughts roamed back to Atlantis.

She almost laughed out of pure exhaustion as she thought of the sequence of events that had led her here.

She thought of the mission her and the others had embarked on, the angry mob that had overpowered Sheppard and taken him from her and the others, and lastly their demands for a mythical object called the Chalice of Sivo that no one knew of, no one except Teyla.

Woolsey had done what any good leader would have done; he denied the request for ransom no matter if he knew where such an object could be found. And then Woolsey, Ronon, Teyla, and Rodney had watched as Sheppard was beaten live on-screen, almost to the brink of death as they were given one last chance to produce the item for Sheppard's life.

Teyla's regaining breath caught again as she visualized Sheppard's barely recognizable face as they held it close to the screen; all the blood oozing from his mouth, the sheer resignation in his swollen eyes, his whispers at them saying 'goodbye'…….

Teyla had taken Ronon aside quietly and told him of a legend her people once spoke of; the Legend of Sivo. An ancient religious artifact meant to give people eternal life if the proper ritual is performed while in possession of it. Teyla remembered telling Ronon she was going to find it, that no matter the cost or hopelessness of this situation that she was going to find it and bring Sheppard back. She knew how frustrated Ronon had been when she had denied his coming with her, but her anguished reminder that if she should fail in her mission that he would be the only one willing or able to have a second chance did effect him. She did not expect Woolsey to break the rules simply for them, or condone their doing it, so it rested upon them one way or another.

Ronon reluctantly agreed and had aided in the cover that Teyla was going off-site to see her people. After a week of searching for answers, Teyla's mission had led her here; to the planet of Bak-na, the ice world where only creatures of dark live and little survives the cold. A forbidden planet among the Athosian people, Teyla risked much being here in more ways than one.

She sat upright, wiping the threat of tears away and began doing what needed to be done.

She slipped her pack off of her aching back and began rummaging through it for the items she would need.

A black candle, matches, the tattered pages of an ancient text she had recovered, and finally a large knife with its hilt covered in hieroglyphs. Teyla arranged the items that way the text described and wasted no time getting started.

She lit the candle with the matches and laid the text before her, crossing her legs as she sat down, taking the knife in her left hand.

"To the Goddess Sivo, I do call. Your humble servant, I beseech you, hear me. Goddess of the earth, air, fire, and water, I revere your greatness, your power, and offer unto you my blood as a simple sacrifice so that your name may be honored."

Using her left hand, Teyla did not hesitate as she slid the knife across her opposite hand, opening up her palm, and letting her blood flow in spatters across the flickering flame.

She placed the knife back down onto the cold ground and continued.

"Great Sivo, I ask for your mercy in hearing my plea. I seek the chalice that gave you everlasting life when you walked the mortal realm. I offer whatever you wish in return for the item. Please hear me and see the pureness of my heart in what I ask."

Silence echoed eerily around Teyla, with only the distant cry of the winter's wind crying out like the screams of the damned somewhere far behind.

Suddenly, the candle blew out as if someone had blown it out in a fierce breath and Teyla gasped to find a woman standing before her, beautiful and strong.

"Through the pain of true loss what's hidden is found, what you seek to conceal is no longer bound. It changes the course of your life with a word, a truer clue spoken has never been heard."

Teyla said nothing for a moment, taking in the goddess' riddle as she concentrated staring blankly at the ground.

Then she looked up and said quietly, "Love."

The goddess smiled and disappeared like mist, leaving an ornate gold chalice in her place.

Teyla smiled for the first time since Sheppard had been taken, the gold reflecting in her brown eyes as she lifted it from the ground.

"I'm coming, John," she said.

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_Please review and Happy Holidays....._


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